Swedish sawmills of today suffer from unsatisfying economy with high costs and low benefits. The economical result depends on how well the sawmill can use their raw material. Iggesund Timber AB, a sawmill in the Holmen group, produces a large amount is enduse orientated products for the woodworking industry. Therefore the aim of this student thesis was to investigate the possibility of automatic enduse orientated quality grading of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) saw logs by using a gamma-ray log scanner. Iggesund Timber AB has the possibility to grade logs automatically with TINA, a two way gamma-ray log scanner. Grading and classification of Scots Pine logs in Sweden today are mainly manual but can in some rare cases be automatic.

the most obvious problem at Traction today is the in-between handling that demands much time and resources. The reason is that the packages are not designed with handling in mind. Several of the packages of today also have a poor degree of utilization that means there is room for a fewer number of articles. That in turn means more packages, more transports, more storage space and more staff. On the basis of a specification of demands ? which take quality and environmental influence, as well as transport, handling and economy in account ? we have developed suggestions on new packages that will facilitate handling and lower the total costs, The time of handling will in some cases abbreviate to just a few seconds with the new packages.

This study examines the equity cost of capital between two periods distinguished by substantial differences in IPO activity. In light of the stemmed IPO flow to the Swedish stock exchange in 2012, this study regards the conjecture that the IPO count is related to the prevailing cost of equity capital for certain periods. By application of the Residual Income Valuation model the cost of equity capital is abstracted from sampled stock prices and compared at two points in time for which extreme highs and lows of IPO activity were observed. Using randomized samples from 1999 and 2012, significant differences between the estimated costs of capital are established. The findings indicate that the equity cost of capital, much as it may help influence, nevertheless plays a subordinated role in the going-public decision..

Costs of maintenance on combines are a subject of interest thus it constitute a large investment and cost for the individual farmer. Therefore it is important to have up to date knowledge and the right facts to be able to do reliable calculations on one of the largest investments for a farmer. The aim of this study was to compare costs of maintenance on combine/threshingmachine with the computer program for advising environmental issues in agriculture, STANK. Interviews took place and data were collected by handing out questionnaires to 20 farmers. A similar study conducted by Neuman (2003) investigated costs of maintenance and compared these with STANK. The results of this study have also been compared and examined related to data from SLA - Skogs och Lantarbetsgivarförbundet. The result shows that 18 out of 20 combines were given a higher cost of maintenance when using STANK compared to the numbers in this study.

This study examines the equity cost of capital between two periods distinguished by substantial differences in IPO activity. In light of the stemmed IPO flow to the Swedish stock exchange in 2012, this study regards the conjecture that the IPO count is related to the prevailing cost of equity capital for certain periods. By application of the Residual Income Valuation model the cost of equity capital is abstracted from sampled stock prices and compared at two points in time for which extreme highs and lows of IPO activity were observed. Using randomized samples from 1999 and 2012, significant differences between the estimated costs of capital are established. The findings indicate that the equity cost of capital, much as it may help influence, nevertheless plays a subordinated role in the going-public decision..

Holmen Skog has in some places in their operation area access to timber trucks with centre mounted scrapers. They make transportation more flexible and reduce reliance on contractors for road maintenance. The trucks with centre mounted scrapers have a higher tare weight, making them less productive and therefore they receive compensation with a 0.75 % increase on transportation price. The purpose of this study was to investigate what actions a timber truck with centre mounted scraper can perform with acceptable quality in winter, and to examine if it is an economically profitable solution for the truck operator and charterer. The study was done in three stages; interviews, performance analysis of the transportations carried out and an economic analysis with the help of Sven Erik Gilles spreadsheet tool. The study included the districts Delsbo and Hudiksvall.

To effectively manage a forest resource for both economic and other values good planning is required. The problem is complex since you want to know which forest to cut and when. Often a hierarchical planning structure is applied, including strategic (long-term), tactical, (medium-term) and operational level. Today SCA Forest is one of few forestry companies in the northern Sweden with an integrated forest wood supply and industry. The goals of the company are to supply their own industries with wood and to manage the resources of the forest through a long-term perspective with satisfactory profitability.

The thesis investigates if it is possible to replace several pumpimpellers with one controllable pumpimpeller, with a economical and a manufacturing analisys aspect. The studied pumpimpeller is mounted on a midrange wastewaterpump, N3127MT.In the thesis a contemplated manufacturing process is evaluated for a concept that are supposed to act as a controllable pumpimpeller. The pumpimpeller are studied in a manufacturing and flow matter and are presented in the thesis.The manufacturing cost is also estimated, and this has been compared to the storage cost and other costs that the existing pumpimpeller generates.The thesis also shows that the concept has minor losses in cutting quality aswell as the effiency comparing to the existing pumpimpeller.The concept also raises the manufacturing cost and this increasing cost makes the presented concept to expensive to carry through.An investigation of the costs that the existing pumpimpeller produces has also been done, and this shows that there is not that much expenses to earn regarding to for example the storage cost. The storage cost includes information from Flygt?s central storagecenter in Lindas, Sweden and Metz, France, and also an inventory about the pumpimpellers located at Flygt?s different distributors worldwide.The thesis shows that a controllable pumpimpeller will generally increase the cost for the pumpimpeller and the performance of the pumpimpeller will decrease..

This essay aims to investigate a rare method of marking up timber before hewing it. The method for marking up timber is by eyesight, where visual judgment and the use of a broad axe are the tools employed. The broad axe is driven through the bark and exposes the inner bark in a straight line. The method is described by a craftsperson dating back to the 1930s. There is a lack of information regarding the method.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the traditional airlines' strategies are affected by the low-cost carriers emergence and their business model and in wich ways they can achieve profitability. Furthermore we also want to examine the factors that affect the airlines' efficiency and competitiveness.The results of this study shows that the growth of the low-cost carriers have affected the network airlines' strategies as they, among other things, had to also lower their fares. This has forced them to revise their cost and efficiency in their entire operation. The result has also shown that the network companies can not come down to the same level of low costs as the low-cost carriers, and must therefore examine their ability to increase revenues instead. .

This report has been done in collaboration with SCA Skog, Norrbottens Forest Management Area. The purpose of the survey is to try to find out what the forest owners who either live in Norrbottens Forest Management area or outside but has their forest holdings in the administrative area has the vision of SCA Forest and their forest services offered by the administration. But also to find out the presences of other timber buying players who procures timber in the administrative area. This study seeks to determine if there are deficiencies that may need changes or improvements to the prevailing conditions in Norrbottens management area. The literature study is about how to design a questionnaire based on what you want to know and what to consider in order to eliminate the problem of constructing a questionnaire. A questionnaire was sent to 400 randomly selected forest owners who have their forest holdings within SCA Forest Norrbotten Management Area. And of the 400, it was 181 respondents with 39 women and 138 men.

I have done a follow up study of the restoration of two rivers, Röälven and Grundan, in order to evaluate the effects of the restoration on the endemic population of trout. Both rivers have been used for timber floating during many years throughout the 20th century, and because of this, had all obstacles such as rocks and wood parts removed. In 2004-2005 both rivers were restored, and rocks and wood were put back into the rivers. Spawning grounds were created and boulder dams were constructed to promote the streaming water. The result showed that the trout population of both rivers increased after the restoration, but also that the trout population of Röälven increased more than that of Grundan.

Lokala investeringsprogram was a subsidy program which supported environmental reforms during the years 1998 to 2002. The subsidies were given to Swedish municipalities. Most of the evaluations of the subsidised projects have now been completed and included in a database. The purpose with this thesis is to analyse whether the instrument has been effective with respect to carbon dioxide reductions and costs. These calculations have focused on subsidy and cost efficiency. The analysis has been compared with a previous report called "LIP ur ett samhällsekonomiskt perspektiv". The result shows that the reduction cost for one kg CO2 has been almost one SEK, which is twice as high as the cost reported in a previous report, half a SEK.

The purpose of this essay is to examine cost-benefit-analysis as a method of evaluation of labour market policy. To illustrate the possibilities and difficulties of the method chapter four contains a partial cost-benefit-analysis of the results of a labour market project in Kävlinge. The questions this essay strives to answer are the following: What possibilities and difficulties do cost-benefit-analyses entail? How would one conduct a cost-benefit-analysis of the project in Kävlinge?The method used in this essay is mainly a literature study of cost-benefit-analysis of labour market programs. The labour market project Brännpunkt is used as an example in a partial cost-benefit-analysis.The applied cost-benefit-analysis of the Brännpunkt project in Kävlinge shows that it is possible to calculate the profit for the society as a whole, given that the necessary information is obtainable.

This MSc thesis is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the need for information from forest campartments selected for clear cutting, in connection with planning in an integrated forest- and sawmill enterprise. A review of literature is followed by a case stud y, where present conditions in a Swedish forest company are compared with current research in the area. The seeond part consists of a simulation stud y, which aims at camparing the accuracy of inventory estimates using different methods. The estimates are delivery forecasts, covering one month consumptian of timber in a large sawmill.